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The Rolling Stones in America: 10 locations that tell the story
No other British band scored the US songbook with such authority as The Rolling Stones.
From ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’s excoriation of the commercial landscape, ‘Gimme Shelter’s napalm doom swept from Vietnam, ‘Street Fighting Man’s urban reportage on the political clash between the Man and the counterculture, and ‘Honky Tonk Woman’s gin-soaked southern hedonism, it’s easy to forget that the Stones were comprised during their 1960s heyday of two Dartfordians and a Cheltenham boy.
But a fervent love of the blues and R&B tradition was unrivalled among any of the British invasion, even The Beatles never quite mined the Americana heritage with such rootsy authenticity as the Stones. Beatlemania would conquer the States and the world, but Mick Jagger and Keith Richards would ensconce themselves in the US spirit by the 1960s’ end, penning work that would endure in the regional songbooks long after their time on Earth.
Naturally, the USA forms a key presence in the Stones’ story, perhaps even eclipsing their swinging London shenanigans in the band’s overall mythos. Through their Stateside travels, old dive bars, spots of natural beauty, or iconic urban landmarks have inspired a song, album artwork, or mammoth live show, many such sites growing into pilgrimages for hardcore Stones fans. Across each coast and up and down the country, join us as we trot around the US of A and peruse the locales that form the American footnotes and chapters of the world’s biggest band.
